Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) plus CAPOX in the treatment of unresectable advanced or recurrent biliary tract carcinoma (BTC): A retrospective study.
Authors: Jie Zhao, Chao Yang, Wenzhou Ding, Guoyong Han, Long Zhang, Chuanwei Jiang, Chen Wu, Ming Ni, Yongxiang Xia
Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology (2022)

e16144 Background: Patients with advanced or unresectable BTC have limited treatment options and poor prognosis. The combination of ICIs with chemotherapy has demonstrated promising antitumor activity with manageable safety in the first- or second-line in treatment of patients with advanced or unresectable BTC, but only a subset of patients with BTC derive benefit. The standard systemic treatment for BTC has been gemcitabine (800-1250 mg/m 2 , i.v., d1 and d8, q3w) in combination with oxaliplatin/cisplatin. The regimen is associated with high frequency of intravenous injection or more hospital days. All above highlights the need for new combinations. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective trial to evaluate ICIs combined with CAPOX (more convenient dosing regimen) in patients with advanced or recurrent BTC who were treatment-naive or failed to previous treatment. Methods: In this study, eligible patients were diagnosed as unresectable advanced or recurrent BTC, therapy-naive or failed to previous treatment with chemotherapy, inhibitors of VEGFR or PD-1/PD-L1. In therapy phase, 28 patients were given with ICIs (dosage and mode of administration according to instructions, d1), oxaliplatin (130 mg/m 2 , i.v., d1), and capecitabine (1000mg/m 2 , po, bid, d1-14) every 3 weeks, until disease progression, intolerable toxicities, or physician/patient withdrawal. The safety and efficacy were assessed by investigators per CTCAE v5.0 and RECIST v1.1, respectively. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS), the secondly endpoints were overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), duration of response (DOR) and adverse events (AEs). Results: From Dec 24, 2019 to Aug 6, 2021, 28 patients had been enrolled to receive therapy. The patients were characterized with a median age of 58 years (range 53-79), 75% intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) and 25% gallbladder cancer (GBC), 25% lymph node metastasis, 25% liver metastases, 54% with history of surgery, and 57% with therapy-native. As of Jan 23, 2022, with a median follow-up of 9.0 months (range, 2.1-23.4), safety and efficacy were assessed in 26 evaluable patients, with response of 12 PR and 6 SD. Confirmed ORR and disease control rate (DCR) were 46.2% (95% CI, 27.1%-66.2%) and 69.2% (95% CI, 48.1%-84.9%), respectively. The median PFS, median OS and median DOR were 6.1 months (95% CI, 4.9-7.3), 16.5 months (95% CI, 5.0-28.0) and 5.0 months (95% CI, 2.0-8.0), respectively. Grade 3-4 treatment-related adverse events occurred in 32.1% of patients, with thrombocytopenia and bone marrow depression ranking the most frequent. No new safety signal was identified. Conclusions: In this study, ICIs combined with CAPOX not only showed high level of safety and efficacy, but also provided convenience in the treatment of unresectable advanced or recurrent BTC.